<p>Sounds like a number of us will be on the 2012 discussion in a couple of years. I’ve avoided it for the most part since I didn’t start thinking about college for D until junior year and figure that S deserves the same lower stress level. Not that I didn’t learn a few useful things over the last year, but S needs to learn more about himself and what he wants,
before we start thinking about where his path will lead. </p>
<p>It has been a lovely, relaxing summer now that graduation excitement has ended. We’re slowly starting to gear up for college preparations, but we all appreciate the break from the stress of the last year.</p>
<p>I’ve got a 2011 coming up and we really do need to get her started with an ACT tutor. She’s one of those high grades/low scores folks. I had thought about doing a college visit or two this summer with her, but now that it’s over 100 degrees every day, I figure she would hate every campus she visited under such conditions. </p>
<p>I also have a rising 8th grader who I just don’t know about. She’s musically talented, good at sports, is cute as can be and has a winning personality, but intelligence-wise I think she fits into the “above average” category. We’ll need a totally different mind set with her. Is it a crime to hope that she’s the one for whom I get by with paying in state, public tuition?</p>
<p>missypie, I’m having similar issues. Her IQ is actually quite high (close to her brother’s) but she is a detail-oriented, concrete thinker, who is visually creative, and not a big picture, intellectual style person. Also not a great test-taker, and we may try ACT rather than SAT (her brother did both). We’ll look at private colleges but also our state school and even less expensive for us, Canadian schools as she is a dual citizen. Part of me has been saying for years that the top 15 or 20 schools have the potential to transform a student (raise horizons and expectations, provide extraordinary contacts, provide opportunities that don’t arise at other places) – I have been the beneficiary of that transformative effect and my son is going to one of the top 15-20 – but below that list, cost should become relatively more important than it was at the high end. But, part of me does not want to distinguish between kids. It is not a crime, but it doesn’t feel quite right.</p>
<p>The whole comparing kids idea: I have three kids, they are all uniquely capable and all of them quite smart in a multitude of ways. However, there is a big difference in my mind between being “school” smart and life smart. I am not talking street smarts, but as Mel Levine likes to say, “not everyone is a generalist,” good at every subject and equally balanced across a HS curriculum.</p>
<p>I know people complain about poster board and powerpoint projects, but truly, my daughter’s efforts in this regard are really amazing. She has a visual eye that is really engaging and so I always learn something from her work. Add to this her ability to present and well, it’s not a skill everyone has to be able to stand up in front of just about anyone and relay what you know confidently. On the other hand, sitting down to take a fill in the blank or word bank/multi choice test? Not so much in her realm. Essays she’s pretty good at, but needs to learn to make a pseudo outline so she makes she she doesn’t miss the 2nd part of a two part question. It’s gonna be a different road, but the beauty is she has so much going for her in such different areas that it will be fun to travel it. I think. Still not going to the 2012 thread to get stressed about ACT or SAT.</p>
<p>But I will say this… son never did stellar on SAT. Not sure why. It was frustrating for him to be honest. We didn’t do a huge prep class, but when we finally got him a tutor to help (they met like four times) his ACT is the score that jumped hugely. Mostly what I think some of this tutoring is best for is just the test taking “tricks and tips.” One of the most useful for son was to was answer a bunch of questions in the book itself (like 5-8) and THEN filling in the bubbles. It wasn’t as distracting a process and it is almost a self-correcting “am I on the right bubble” check. But ACT was so much a better test for him that for those schools that didn’t require SAT II’s if you took the ACT or at all, he didn’t even submit SAT’s. That included Amherst, Colgate, Middlebury, and Tufts!</p>
<p>Being at the lake is seeing a whole new side of my kids that I don’t typically see when we’re at home. But while I always have known younger D adores her brother, she seems to hang on his every word and attention while we’re here. Of course her friends think “he’s hot,” so that helps. (he finds it creepy) </p>
<p>Only supposed to hit 70 today… my absolute FAVORITE kind of weather.</p>
<p>Hey Missy… anytime someone refers to a rising 8th grader as “cute as can be” with a “winning personality” has a real keeper on their hands. Those were not the descriptors I would have used for my emerging teenage daughters. :)</p>
<p>Dropped my S off at his orientation. One of the benefits of a local college, he already has his list of what to bring to a dorm room, now he has to see if they are all allowed. (have my doubts about the toaster).</p>
<p>Missypie: On the ACT website you can sign up for one year of an online prep course for about 20$. Will get my D (HS class of 2011) as soon as she plows through her summer homework. Same thing with her, needs to work on her testing, as her school grades are good. Started the process with her now, just got back from the PNW where we scoped out 5 LACs. So here we go again</p>
<p>That’s sweet. Thank you. I was personally The Most Awkward Eighth Grader on the Planet, so it has been amazing to me to see my own Ds get through middle school with poise and confidence. (Before any of you try to challenge me in the Most Awkward category, let me tell you that I wore thick glasses and was 5’4" and 92 lbs.)</p>
<p>cpeltz DS is in the high school class of 2013 and I hope to enjoy the ride with him as I (mostly) did with the girls. I don’t miss the “tempus fugit” in the back of my mind but I ADORED the college search/research process and there is sort of a feeling of…“wait, what am I going to do online NOW??” that has seized me this summer.</p>
<p>geek-mom I loled at your post I hope to be that way with DS. I feel like now that I know better I will do better!</p>
<p>Missypie the ACT website test prep is low stress and fairly effective. My D used it half heartedly and brought her composite score up a point. I will sign DS up for it before his first go around w/ the ACT.</p>
<p>re awkwarness in 8th grade girls…There seem to be two camps for the most part…the butterfly and the caterpillar. I definately was a caterpillar and my girls were too. DS the masculine version of the butterfly socially…what would that be anyway? A Grasshopper??</p>
<p>HMW those little moments are easy to let slip by so, like you am trying to be on the look out.</p>
<p>I don’t really want to go back and do last year all over again, but if I did I’d be a lot mellower, just like geek_mom. yeah, right. ;)</p>
<p>I am planning (hoping?) to be a bit more relaxed with my class of '12 D, which is why I am avoiding that thread completely. Happy to know I’ll have some 09/13 company over there when the time comes.</p>
<p>What’s all this talk of “weaning” ourselves from CC? :eek: I thought we were all going to stick around to help each other through whatever comes next - homesick kids, roommate issues, first visit home, etc. Feel free to take the summer off if you must, but PLEASE come back in the fall!</p>
<p>At son’s school, the parents stay for the weekend. Then the whole next week, only the freshman are on campus. They finally posted the schedule for the whole weekend and orientation week. I still get teary eyed when I come to the parents go home part. </p>
<p>In a totally unrelated issue, are y’all buying printers? Wireless enabled, or will your kid just use cables? Son obviously will need a small one if he needs one at all. Have any of you researched the printer issue?</p>
<p>We get ONE day on campus - move-in in the morning, parent orientation in the afternoon, and then “Parents: it is now time to say good bye to your student” at 4:30pm. On August 23rd. Not that I’m counting the days or hours or anything… :(</p>
<p>Re: printer. When we bought D’s Mac several months ago, they were offering a $100 printer to go with it. I checked very quickly with a friend who’s son was a freshman this year and she recommended we get it. We snapped it up, thinking even if D doesn’t need it at school it was too good a price to pass up.</p>
<p>PRJ we get one day too on the 27th. The plan is to arrive in town on the 26th then get to campus early on move-in day hoping for less congestion and first choice of bed/side of room etc. (what’s the etiquette there BTW?) The girls will be on opposite sides of campus from one another but since walking time between the two is less than 10 minutes it won’t be a big deal for transport. Plus, the RAs and orientation leaders all carry boxes and trunks and what not into the dorms so all we need to do is navigate the traffic. There’s a Mass and a BBQ and we are shown the door by 5:30 I think.</p>
<p>We were thinking of waiting to buy a printer until DDs make contact with their roommates. I have heard that two printers to a room is a space stealer. Do you think it’s asking for conflict for roommates to share? Seems like it could be negotiated fairly easily but maybe I’m naive.</p>
<p>historymom - that doesn’t sound naive at all. judging by the back-and-forth between my D and her soon-to-be-roommate, they are eager to accommodate one another. but somehow I doubt if they’ve talked printers yet - I think it’s mostly been about color scheme ;)</p>
<p>we have the same arrival plan - get to town the day before, learn our way around campus, locate the BB&B, etc. then arrive at the dorm as early as possible. I don’t know the etiquette about bed choice either - I’d assume first-come, but willing to switch if roommate has some particular need.</p>
<p>S1’s school works much like historymom’s Ds’ school - one day to move in, a couple of events during the afternoon for parents, and then we are shown the door. </p>
<p>Side of the room etiquette varies from school to school too. D & S1’s school actually used to assign kids to one side or the other, based on landline phone jack locations. Apparently nobody does the landline thing anymore, so it’ll be interesting to see if the school still makes assignments that way, three years later. S1 won’t have his room assignment for a few more weeks anyway.</p>
<p>Printers: Definitely not needed at D & S1’s school. D took hers with her the first year and it never came out of the box. I expect that as with so many things, this varies from school to school.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip on how to change it back to the classic mode. It was too different all at once! </p>
<p>We’re getting a printer as one is part of the package for D’s computer. She should soon know about her roommate and hopefully they will confer on that. </p>
<p>Orientation is a one day affair for parents at D’s school, so we’ll leave town that evening to start the long drive home. </p>
<p>I’m definitely wondering how S will compare to D in the college process. He did very well his freshman year, but my sense is that he is less likely to be as strong across the board compared to his sister. He also is a sports fanatic so the availability of a good athletics program may figure in to his decision, his sister has no interest in that. I’m thinking he’s more likely to be interested in a public university but that is yet to be determined.</p>
<p>wow–I have turned into a lurker but had to come out to deal with that crazy color change --thanks for the tip PJR.
S signed up for his first class today and it was stressful. They do one a week and he could not get into the Biology lab he wanted/needed. So far a colloquial “Consuming China” which was assigned to him (I want to sit in!) and economics.
I seem to be the only one here whose S has been difficult to be around. First it was GF problems (oh yeah I was so hopeful…) and his sister reminded me today that with only 46 days left he is no doubt anxious but as he is not a talker who would know?? I have been looking at plane tickets to escape for a few days!</p>
<p>I changed it back instantly. And I’m still laughing at the choice of calling the redesign “fresh.” Maybe we need to send some CC administrators to How Not to Act Old school (see PRSatran’s channel on YouTube; look for How Not to Act Old).</p>
<p>My S is going to have an “emergency” printer, in case of non-availability of school printers at critical times. He is lucky in that he will apparently be rooming with two friends from HS so they are dividing up who will bring what to the room (frig, playstation, toaster, etc). One printer a room should probably be enough for that usage.</p>
Still not going to the 2012 thread to get stressed about ACT or SAT.</p>
I hope to be that way with DS. I feel like now that I know better I will do better!</p>